Fortnite’s shotguns are getting a major nerf

Shotguns have always been the most controversial weapon in Fortnite Battle Royale. At first, many players wanted them out of the game entirely. Most people have now grown to see the importance of the weapon to encourage building, but no one was quite happy with getting killed by one in just one shot. So, in hopes of making close-quarters combat a little better for everyone, Epic is taking a look at shotgun damage numbers, and made some changes earlier today.

The biggest change most players will notice is the fact that no shotgun can net a one-hit kill of anyone with 100 health and 100 shields. That’s a pretty big change for pump shotguns in particular, which are having their damage dropped by 10, bringing the uncommon version to 80 and the rare version to 85 base damage. In addition, both the pump shotgun and the tactical shotgun are having their damage multiplier dropped from 2.5 to 2.0. All that math basically just means that their max damage is going to be closer to 170 than 200.

This is a pretty massive change for Fortnite as a whole, and means that short-range combat is going to look a little different. After this change, the heavy shotgun, the rarest of that type of weapon, will also do the most damage. Similarly, submachine guns and pistols are likely to be favored by a few more players now. Also changing as a part of short-range combat in this update are traps, which have been buffed from 75 damage to 150.

The final change that Epic announced in this update is that jetpacks will officially leave the game next Monday, June 11.